Angry Laid-Off Keystone Workers Tell Biden: Our Future Is 'Completely Taken Away'
Jobs 'completely taken away by one signature'
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Joe Biden's order to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline project has prompted more response from angry laid-off workers in Fouke, Ark.
One worker described how her job was "completely taken away by one signature."
"My husband and I, we were both going to be able to have the opportunity to work on the Keystone," Valerie Knight told Fox News.
"That was going to be my first job back as a helper after having our little boy."
Labor groups said Biden's decision quickly eliminated 1,000 union jobs and could kill 10 times more in construction jobs that were expected.
"My husband has spent many, many hours practicing to become a welder," Knight said.
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"To be able to turn around and go into a different job trade completely, we would be starting over," Knight added.
Biden recently pledged to create new "high-paying union jobs" through investments in green energy infrastructure projects.
But Arkansas workers said that switching trades would mean "starting over."
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki faced questions from a reporter who pressed her on the "green jobs" Joe Biden had promised.
Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked:
"When is it that the Biden administration is going to let the thousands of fossil fuel industry workers, whether it's pipeline workers or construction workers, who are either out of work or will soon be out of work because of the Biden EO, when it is and where it is they can go for their green job?"
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But Psaki failed to answer where the jobs would come from.
The leader of one of the most prominent U.S. labor unions criticized Biden's move
"I wish he hadn't done that on the first day," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told "Axios on HBO."
"It did and will cost us jobs in the process. I wish he had paired that more carefully with the thing he did second by saying, 'Here's where we're creating jobs.'"
A wife of a laid-off Keystone XL worker, Mindy Seyler, echoed Trumka's concern.
"Our youngest daughter is a junior in high school, and she's supposed to be going to college too, and I don't know how I'm going to pay for it," Seyler said.
"I have no idea."
Meanwhile, a new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report projected that millions more Americans will remain jobless as the Democrat White House packs the workforce with foreign labor.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin, a Democrat, urged Joe Biden to reverse his recent executive order canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline due to massive job losses.
Manchin's letter to Biden came amid 14 attorney generals blasting him over the same issue.
Manchin wrote:
“I am writing today to express my support of responsible energy infrastructure development, including of oil and natural gas pipelines."
“Pipelines continue to be the safest mode to transport our oil and natural gas resources, and they support thousands of high-paying, American union jobs."
"To that end, I encourage you to reconsider your decision to revoke the cross-border permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and take into account the potential impacts of any further action to safety, jobs, and energy security.”
